Arguments

The fall of Bo Xilai, once the rising star of China’s Communist Party, has been spectacular to watch. Initially purged last month because his superiors feared he might launch a “new Cultural Revolution,” the ouster was shocking enough to spark rumours that Mr. Bo and his allies were planning to seize power in Beijing via a coup d’état.
Then came stories of a British businessman, a fixer for Mr. Bo’s family, turning up dead in a hotel room in Chongqing, the Yangtze River metropolis governed by Mr. Bo.
Chinese investigators have since connected Mr. ...

The scandal surrounding Bo Xilai, a Chinese official once tipped as a future leader, shows how impenetrable politics in China is to commentators and analysts, according toHugh Young, managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Asia.
Chinese authorities in March unexpectedly sacked Bo as mayor of Chongqing, China’s largest municipality.
Earlier this month, he was suspended from the Communist party's Central Committee for ‘serious disciplinary violations,’ and officials said his wife was under investigation over the murder of Neil Heywood, a British ...

Just a few weeks before his dramatic fall from power, Bo Xilai wrote an inscription in calligraphy, praising the Chongqing Water Assets Management Company, and urging support for its operations.
What he did not say was that a foundation controlled by his younger brother, Bo Xicheng, had acquired a stake in a subsidiary of the water company.
Mr. Bo had done something similar in 2003, while serving as governor here in Liaoning Province. He said his province would make supporting the Dalian Daxian company, a conglomerate engaged primarily in electronics manufacturing, one of the most ...